Fang woke quickly after hearing the gasp on the branch next to his. They were sleeping in a tree in on their way to D.C.

'No! Go away! Please get away from me,' Max s voice was loud but not loud enough to reach the others so they remained asleep. Fang quickly scanned the area around them to check for Erasers but the coast was clear.

'No! Go away,' Max s voice, though quiet, was full of anguish and her face clearly showed her pain, but she remained asleep. Hating to see her in pain he quickly woke her, gently shaking her shoulders. Her eyes flew open but she remained silent and stared blankly at the form that had woken her, though Fang could see the fear hidden in her eyes.

'What s wrong? You were screaming in your sleep. Was it the voice?' Fang asked quietly, his voice cutting through the silence of the dark and still night.'No...' Her voice was raspy and she cleared her throat, 'No,' she repeated, 'just a nightmare.' Though she seemed more interested in convincing herself than Fang. She didn t continue not wanting to seem weak, yet Fang could see the pain hidden in her eyes. He quietly, so as not to wake the others, moved to her branch and pulled her closer so that his arm was around her shoulders, her head resting on his chest.

'Can I... um... can I ask what it was about?' He questioned wondering if he had gone too far.

She was silent for a few moments then after letting out a shaky breath she mumbled, 'Jeb'. The word hung in the silence as Fang tensed and then relaxed again. Jeb was the white coat who had betrayed them and it had affected them all, his hate for the man increasing tenfold when he thought that he had caused Max any more pain.

They sat there in the silence for a few moments with his arm around her, slowly stroking her hair. Then he slowly cleared his throat and asked, 'Are you gonna be okay?'

'Yeah,' she whispered, 'I mean I usually don t fall asleep after but I ll be fine.'

Fang s eyes widened in shock, 'Wait, you ve had this nightmare before?!?'

Max inwardly cursed herself for revealing this. 'Yeah,' she mumbled into his chest, 'I mean I just stay further away from the flock no one hears me and...'

'Max,' Fang interrupted 'I don t want you to do that anymore! I don t care if you wake me up! Promise me that you won t do that anymore,' He grabbed her chin and pulled her head up gently so that their eyes were locked. 'Promise me.'

She didn t know what to say. There was so much sincerity in Fang s eyes that when she looked into them she answered automatically, 'I promise,' she breathed.

Fang gave her a small smile because she had never agreed so easily to anything before, but it vanished quickly. 'You said you don t sleep after,' he began questioningly.

'No, I just hate feeling so... alone,' she admitted quietly.

'Well, I can fix that' he said and pulled her in tighter.

Now it was Max s eyes that widened in pure shock at both the generosity of this statement and the fact that it made her melt inside, but she couldn t let him do it.

'What? No, what will the flock think when we wake up and I m in your arms?'

He pondered this for a moment before saying, 'I ll get up early and move back.'

'Are you sure that...' Max started.'Go to sleep Max'

Max looked up at Fang and he could see the pure gratitude in her eyes, 'Thanks,' she mumbled and then reached up and planted a sweet kiss on the corner of his mouth. Then she replaced her head on his chest and drifted off to a peaceful sleep. Fang smiled to himself and closed his eyes, silently praying that morning would never come.

As the sun began to rise, Fang got up and went back to his branch as promised. An hour later he was awoken by the sweet sounds of Max s voice shouting, 'Up and at em guys!' Max glanced over at Fang and smiled softly, a smile which he returned, before she continued kicking the rest of the flock awake.

A few nights later Fang awoke to a soft scream next to him. 'No! Please no! Go away!' Fang quickly scanned the area and after finding nothing slithered over to Max s branch, as they were once again sleeping in trees, and woke her gently.

'It s alright,' he whispered, and after a few moments of blank stares she smiled timidly at him. He pulled her up against him leaning his back against the trunk of the tree. And she willingly snuggled up against him. She looked up at him and was suddenly struck by how amazingly good looking he was. She shook her head slightly trying to gather her thoughts. She mumbled,'Thanks,' as her gaze slowly shifted from his dark eyes to his perfectly inviting lips. And before she fully knew what she was doing she had leaned in and kissed him lightly. For a second he tensed in shock and just as she was about to pull away he thread his fingers through her hair and held her there kissing her back with all he had. His tongue grazed her lips sending shivers down her spine while silently begging for entrance which she granted willingly. His tongue hot against hers as she thread her fingers into his short hair. Max pulled away and stared at him.

Staring at her with happiness in his eyes he stated lightly, 'I don t know about you, but that s definitely helping my dreams along.' She giggled and fell into pleasant dreams involving her, Fang and a bottle of whipped cream.

The next time Fang heard the familiar gasp he gently kissed her awake and held her tight until all the horrible nightmares in the world didn t matter anymore. Because Max had Fang and Fang had Max. And Max thought that she would endure plenty more nightmares just to be here, because in his arms was the happiest place she could ever be.

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